Comment on ‘We’ve seen it decimate areas’: Somerset town’s traders oppose parking charges
wewbull@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Yes! Councils see parking charges as a money making scheme to bolster budgets, but having available free parking attracts people to the town centre. This is especially true in market towns that might have a large catchment area.
There’s a reason supermarkets don’t charge for parking when they can avoid it.
mondoman712@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Free parking is a huge subsidy given to those who need it least and only serves to exacerbate urban sprawl. Drivers should be paying for the space they take up along with all of the other impacts they have on the urban environment, and the money should be used to provide viable alternatives to driving.
wewbull@feddit.uk 1 day ago
It’s a subsidy to the shops and businesses in a town. Businesses that pay taxes back to the council. A thriving town provides more funds than a dead one.
In a rural area there isn’t public transport to get people to the centre of towns to buy things (and there never will be because the population is not dense enough to be practical). It’s personal transport, or people order online and the town dies.
In an urban area the equation is different.
mondoman712@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
It’s not rural, it’s a town of 21,000 with many other towns nearby. There’s already buses which could easily be made more frequent and to cover more routes.